Let's say my 40% balloon after 4 years is 35k. I walk into the original dealership to trade it in for another BMW when the current lease is up. I would imagine they would have access to the amount of my balloon before they tell me how much the car is worth - so what is the incentive for them to say my car is actually worth 38k so here is another 3k towards your new car? If the car is worth less then it is just a BMW Finance problem.

Maybe I am just being overly cynical.

Another thing about full circle - I have got 60,000km over 4 years. I am allowed an extra 5,000km, but at a cost of 75 cents per km. Over that and full circle thing is nullified.

A question to those who have taken advantage of this 3% finance offer:
Was the dealer still willing to do a deal on the car you bought?

I generally try to factor in a rough figure of 8-10% discount on the quoted driveaway price although this is highly variable depending on how many options have been selected. I've been aware of other finance offers where the dealer hardly discounts on the quoted price saying that you're already making big savings by paying less interest on the car

Basically what they said was that if you want to haggle on price then the 3% is not applicable. But at the end of the day they want to move cars so there is some leeway. Just not as much as you would off normal finance. I managed to knock a little over $100 off my monthly repayment from the first figure they gave me. So over 48 months that is still almost $5k.

I don't think they will go for 8 - 10% because they would have to lose money on 3% interest.

The other thing is they would try to flog you a 320d or 320i - they are very slow moving so who knows what they might be willing to do?

Spoke to my dealer and he told me interest paid over amount borrowed is more if one was to op for a balloon payment. I usually just ask the financier which option give me the smallest interest payable and go with that.

Thanks jctg. That's very useful to know. If you managed to haggle $100 off the monthly repayment that's still nearly 7% off a $75000 car. So clearly there is still some room to move on price even with the 3% finance deal

I've been aware of other finance offers where the dealer hardly discounts on the quoted price saying that you're already making big savings by paying less interest on the car

I got the offer (the original letter and a follow-up email on 16 Nov) but am not currently in the market. The letter and email both state that it is available with other offers:

Quote:

"Complete with the peace of mind that only comes from BMW Full Circle finance with Guaranteed Future Value, this one of a kind offer is available in conjunction with all other offers and negotiations..."

Thanks jctg. That's very useful to know. If you managed to haggle $100 off the monthly repayment that's still nearly 7% off a $75000 car. So clearly there is still some room to move on price even with the 3% finance deal

Maybe I should add that I got my a$$ handed to me on the trade in of my X1. They valued it at 35k - the car is 2 years and 3 months old with 23,000k (plus 18 inch staggered Alloys, Leather, Bi-Xenon, X-line and Sunroof) on it. I bought it for 68k.

So they are going to make a killing out of giving it a wash (and repair scratched rims), parking it on the lot and putting a $48k sticker on it.